Canada at the 2008 International Tent Pegging Championships

At last year's International Tent Pegging Championships Canada will once again be represented at the International Tent Pegging Championships, when Akaash Maharaj captains UNICEF Team Canada at the 2008 games, to be held this January, in Imphal, Manipur, India. "I can imagine no greater privilege than to ride both for the honour of my country and for the cause of the world's most vulnerable children," said Akaash. "I hope that our team will make a meaningful contribution towards mobilising public support for UNICEF's campaign against the scourge of childhood AIDS, as well as serve Canada creditably in the medal standings." With a history stretching back 2 500 years, tent pegging emerged out of cavalry training exercises, and is often known as equestrian skill-at-arms. It is one of only ten disciplines officially recognised by the Fédération équestre internationale (FEI), the global governing body for Olympic and international equestrian sport. Click for full details on tent pegging, the International Championships, and UNICEF Team Canada. Click for Akaash's daily blog from the 2008 championships. Click to donate to UNICEF's campaign against childhood AIDS. Repeating the unique Canadian arrangement he struck for the 2007 International Championships held in Oman, Akaash has again declined corporate sponsorship and has instead donated his team's naming rights to the United Nations Children's Fund. Carrying the humanitarian organisation's colours in India alongside the maple leaf, he hopes to further UNICEF's Unite for Children campaign against childhood HIV-AIDS, a disease that currently infects 1 200 children per day and that claims the life of one child under fifteen every minute. Akaash trains at the Meadows Equestrian Centre in Uxbridge, Ontario, and began tent pegging as a rider with the Cavalry Squadron of the Governor General's Horse Guards, an armoured reconaissance regiment of the Canadian Forces. He has volunteered with UNICEF since he was a child, and was Chair of UNICEF's Orange Box Hallowe'en programme in Ontario. He was also a director of UNICEF at Oxford University and of the Commonwealth of Nations Association for UNICEF. Previous News Flashes: Canada at the 2007 International Tent Pegging Championships The first Canadian athlete to compete at the international championships of one of the world's oldest equestrian sports, Akaash will ride for both Canada and UNICEF. Leadership Convention Standing Ovation Delegates give Akaash a standing ovation, as the Montréal Gazette raves, "Maharaj…speaks with an eloquence the party hasn't heard since Pierre Trudeau's day." Liberal Accountability Report Akaash publishes the official Liberal report into government policy accountability. Akaash Launches his Third National Tour "The greatness of our country lies in the vastness of our land and the diversity of our people." National Leadership Debates Akaash's national Policy and Leadership Fora sweep Canada Akaash Addresses PEI Leadership Convention "You have proved that we are a Party of the many, not the few," said Akaash to 5000 delegates assembled in Charlottetown An Ottawa Ovation Greets Akaash "It feels like the days of Trudeaumania," said George Devine, President of Ottawa - Vanier Akaash Awarded the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal Akaash is decorated in recognition of his work towards Middle East peace